Since the dawn of the Space Age, people and hardware have thundered into orbit, shoved skyward by barely controlled explosions. Now, a loosely connected group of scientists and engineers hopes to make a launch as easy – and nearly as gentle – as pushing the “penthouse” button on an elevator. To proponents, space elevators promise to slash the cost of sending cargo and people into space. And, they say, elevators would eliminate the costly need to overengineer satellites and other payloads to survive the rigors of a launch.
May 22nd, 2003
Digging Mars The Christian Science Monitor
Mars beckons, and planet Earth is set to respond. On June 2, the European Space Agency is set to launch Mars Express/Beagle 2 to the red planet, followed by a NASA mission that involves sending two rovers on June 5 and 25. These robotic geologists are designed to scrutinize soil and rocks for clues to the history of the planet’s climate. Together, the missions represent a vital step in the quest to answer the question: Did Mars ever offer an environment capable of nurturing life?
March 12th, 2003
A Mars invasion, by a fleet of rovers The Christian Science Monitor
Efforts to explore Mars – a planet that has captivated the human imagination for millenniums – represent one of the few bright spots in a space program overshadowed by the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew last month. Now, US and European scientists are poised for a return to the red planet late this spring in an unprecedented effort to deliver two rovers and a lander to the surface, while a new orbiter takes up station high above to gather stereo images of the planet’s surface in extraordinary detail. The projects, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express, will help determine whether Mars could once have hosted simple forms of organic life – and whether such forms still may exist there.
February 10th, 2003
NASA’s future: cutbacks or trips to Mars? The Christian Science Monitor
The loss of seven astronauts who perished when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart in the skies over a week ago is once again bringing NASA’s future into question. As it has done with past space tragedies, Congress Wednesday will begin debates about what the nation’s goals for space flight are – and whether the scientific advances made by manned space shuttles are too narrow to justify the cost in both dollars and human lives.
November 12th, 2002
The sky’s no limit The Christian Science Monitor
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to put an experiment into space. Students across the country have a chance every year to enter a contest sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Some winners help put their projects on a space shuttle or rocket. Others receive scholarships to Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala. Every winner gets a special award presented by a NASA representative
August 29th, 2002
Fabricating the future The Christian Science Monitor
Smart fabrics that play music, sniff out chemicals, and send data about your location and well-being are slowly weaving their way into daily life. Dr. Maggie Orth’s new technology is part of an emerging wave: weaving all sorts of intelligence into textiles, including the ability to detect dangerous chemicals, sanitize themselves, and serve as communication networks. Applications run the gamut, from health and sporting goods to sophisticated combat uniforms. It’s a field
May 30th, 2002
Possibility of water on Mars spurs talk of a manned visit The Christian Science Monitor
The discovery of potentially vast deposits of water ice close to the surface on Mars could breath new life into the notion of sending humans to explore the red planet. This week, scientists poring over data from NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter released evidence indicating that large regions near the planet’s poles collectively hold enough water to fill Lake Michigan twice. As a result, James Longuski, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University explains, large quantities of accessible water on Mars could drastically cut the cost and time required to mount a mission to the red planet by reducing the amount of material, including hydrogen, that would have to be launched from Earth. “Now scientists are telling us that the hydrogen is already there waiting for us!” Mr. Longuski says.
April 12th, 2002
Sticks and stones: the Martian Meteorite debate rages on The Christian Science Monitor
Mars has always been a provocateur. The planet has a long history of making us uneasy, from the portents of violence our ancestors associated with its red glow, to our science-fiction nightmares of malicious, technologically superior alien invaders. And Mars is still stirring things up in the scientific community. For several years now, there has been an on-going debate as to whether a meteorite from Mars contains the fossilized remnants of microbial life. Some scientists think we no longer have to wonder about whether there is other life in the universe; we have the remains of tiny Martian cousins in our laboratories at this very moment. Others remain skeptical, claiming that every structure and chemical in the meteorite could have been formed by natural processes that have nothing to do with life, like chemical weathering and heating. Despite the controversy, the Martian Meteorite debate has already taught us a lot about what kind of questions to ask the next time we get our hands on a sample of Martian soil, as well as shown us how little we understand about the threshold of life itself.
February 28th, 2002
NASA eyes nuclear rockets to reach deep space The Christian Science Monitor
The scenario is now just a gleam in an engineer’s eye: An ambitious mission to the outermost reaches of the solar system is ready to leave Earth orbit. After a flawless launch, a final rocket motor ignites. When it falls away spent after a few minutes, ground controllers check the heading of the craft, and with a punch of a button, activate a nuclear reactor the size of a small trash can. The reactor represents NASA’s technological declaration of independence from gravity as a tool for propelling interplanetary spacecraft. Whereas today, a trip to the outer solar system relies on five to 10 minutes of burning chemicals and months or years of coasting, nuclear propulsion holds the promise of faster, more direct, more experiment-packed missions to places where sunlight is too feeble to power spacecraft. Indeed, some say that manned missions to Mars and beyond are unthinkable without nuclear propulsion.
November 1st, 2001
Water, water somewhere – we think – on Mars The Christian Science Monitor
The Odyssey spacecraft, now settling into orbit around Mars, will be hunting for water – the key nutrient for past or present life. But the spacecraft can neither see nor smell its quarry. How will Odyssey scientists know when they have found it? This part of the mission is an exercise in indirect detection. Instead of looking for water itself, a suite of instruments will look for gamma rays and neutrons emitted by hydrogen. The Odyssey team assumes that hydrogen at or near the Martian surface probably will be locked in water molecules. It’s the “H” in “H2O.”